Viscosity Dyeing

My husband is a printmaker and has taught me a smidgen about viscosity printing. It involves using different viscosities of oil based ink in a monoprint or intaglio process in which the thickest inks act almost as a resist to the thinner inks. This may be completely wrong, but it is my blog and my memory so I am going with it.

I have experienced a similar and very surprising aspect of this while working with MX dyes on silk. So for now at least I am thinking of this as "Viscosity Dyeing" I am working on a series of pieces that remind me of tapestries or Persian carpets. This is close up from the center of the piece.

The ochre reminded me of the lush tightly knotted carpets and I was fascinated that it overpowered the blues and just shines right through. I am guessing that this is because the strongly mixed ochre has filled up all the dye sites.  I liked the rug and border aspect so I have continued to explore this.